Last week I wrote a blog post about the survey I sent to our school community to get ideas about how we can best create a makerspace at our school. I have only received one new survey response since then, and that response did not have much of an effect on the results. So far, I’ve heard back from 36 percent of our teachers and administrators. I’m happy to get this response rate during the summer, but I would like to send this survey out again once teachers return to the school to see if I can get more data. I want this project to succeed and to do so, I need to make sure that we hear as many voices as possible.
There have been some changes, though. We are in discussions now with our potential makerspace partner about how we can make a scaled-down version of the offsite class work. As a result of questioning how we can make this happen, I found more new challenges and questions. How can we afford a class when our budget is tight? How can we get kids to an offsite class when we are short on bus drivers? We also need to reevaluate this plan as a whole. Will the benefits be significant enough to be worth the investment?
As I mentioned in my first post, there was a strong correlation between knowing what to do with a makerspace and the desire to use it. More knowledge seems to indicate more desire. No respondent who rated their motivation as a 1 or 2 out of 5 said that they had a clear understanding of what a makerspace was. Those who rated their motivation as a 4 or 5 out of 5 had a higher median understanding. Educating faculty is a vital part of having a successful makerspace.
I realized after hearing feedback from peers though that I needed to be more clear that pedagogy would be strongly considered in the training process and in how we use the makerspace. I realized that I didn’t make that thinking clear. In my revised plan I clarified the importance of pedagogy. We need to work closely with teachers to make sure the space works for them and their methods. We also need to keep asking questions like: How will the makerspace complement learning? How does it make it better? When should we not use it? How can we make learning technology in the makerspace relevant by connecting it to lessons in other disciplines?
One of the most important realizations I had this week was that I wasn’t considering the possible negative effects that the space might have for faculty. This is a big change that we are asking our teachers to make. They already have established techniques that they have worked hard to develop and which are working successfully already. We need to respect what is working for them already and be mindful of not interfering with that. We need to keep in mind that change can be difficult.
Aside from being a lot of work to implement, changes can be stressful and confusing. Teachers need to know why this change is important and be an essential part of instigating it (Gentry, 2104). This cannot be a change that is imposed upon them. We have to work with them to figure out how the makerspace can complement their techniques and empower them with knowledge about how to use the space to ensure that they feel they can be successful.
Since each teacher has his or her own personality and each discipline will likely implement the space in different ways, I’d like to have small group meetings with each department to figure out how to make the best use of the space. This will allow us to brainstorm project ideas together that meet the goals of individuals. It will also allow us to more closely connect with faculty, which is vital for motivation. As Berger said: “You just don’t know about people and what drives them until you spend time sitting on the floor listening to someone tell you their story” (2014, p. 179).
For more details see my thinglink presentation.
REFERENCES
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
Gentry, B. (2014) Coaching people through the change curve. Retrieved from: https://www.insights.com/us/resources/coaching-people-through-the-change-curve/
Brian Durst EdTech 